Grocery Shopping with Grom and a GIVEAWAY!

giveaway closed

Grom and I do our weekly grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. It's a great place to shop. Have you seen this video?

It's so true. I'd be one of those beautiful moms if only I had some yoga clothes.

Anyway... just about the time that Grom got to big to pick up and throw in the cart seat, grocery shopping became a bit of a pain. It's like Grom decided that Trader Joe's was the perfect place to misbehave and act like a hooligan.

Our Trader Joe's has Sally the Seal. She's a stuffed animal who is constantly hiding around the store. Grom and I joke that she works at TJ's and is hiding to get out of work. She is one naughty seal. Looking for Sally used to keep Grom occupied enough so that I could shop. Here she is snoozing amongst the toilet paper. Finding her gets you a handsome reward.

Grom still looks for Sally, but there are only so many places a sneaky seal can hide so he usually finds her pretty quick. I decided I had to come up with another idea. Enter the picture shopping list.

Each week I spend a couple of minutes adjusting the last list with some of the new things that we need. Some of the items never change as we are creatures of habit and Surferman loves his green apples. I find the pictures through Google Images. Just type in your grocery item and a picture will come up paste them into your document and voila. I have found that if I search for "Trader Joe's" and the item, I often find a picture of the exact product. Those crazy bloggers love to post pictures of everything.

At first, Grom's shopping list was pictures only. Recently I started adding the words to encourage Grom's learning to read. He looks for the items and then crosses them off as he puts them in the cart. It doesn't slow me down any more than when I used to have to take him to the bathroom to threaten talk some sense into him.

So here's where the giveaway starts...

First - Grom's Printable Grocery List. Feel free to download and use it with your kiddos. I made a pretty generic one to share. Everyone wins!

Second - I was contacted by CSN stores with an offer to sponsor a giveaway. CSN is a bunch of online stores offering many different items for the home like kids bedding, kitchen items, toys and games and so much more. CSN has over 200 stores. I could get lost shopping at everyespressomachine.com and cookware.com Next time you need something, go check out CSN.

I had a hard time deciding what to choose as a prize. Finally, I picked Learning Resources Pretend and Play Teaching Cash Register. I know it's something that Grom would really like to have. He has wanted a cash register forever, and money math is a very important skill to master.

Here's a little about this great register...

Cha-ching!! Playing store comes to life with this talking, interactive cash register that rewards transactions with lights, sounds and voice messages. Holds actual-size money and includes a built-in scanner, scale, coin slot and volume control. Engaging play helps kids practice basic math skills including addition, subtraction and recognizing different coins and bills. The automatic shut-off saves batteries and reminds kids to 'Come and play again!'.

So, some of you are thinking... great Robin... I don't have kids why would I want to enter your giveaway. Well... that's what I was thinking too. So I'm sweetening the pot.

Third - To complete the grocery shopping experience... A $25 Trader Joe's gift card! I think that'll buy you about 7 bottles of juice with a crazy name or 25 organic yogurts or 18 bottles of sparkling water or... well the possibilities are endless aren't they. If you are unfortunate enough to not have a Trader Joe's close by, I'll get you a Starbucks card instead. Starbucks are everywhere.

So... How do you enter? There are three ways to win.

1. Leave a comment with your favorite item from Trader Joe's or something you'd like to try from the video above.

2. Subscribe to my blog . If you already subscribe, great! (let me know in a separate comment)

3. Post or tweet about my giveaway on your blog or on Twitter (let me know you did in a separate comment - leave a link to your blog or your twitter username).

Of course, make sure I have an email address to contact you if you win.

Winner will be chosen by random number from eligible comments. Entries accepted until 10pm PST March 25, 2010. Winner announced Friday March 26th. Prizes can only be shipped to the US and Canada.

Whoever you are, I hope you win.

Happy Shopping!

Crayon Resist Valentine Hearts

Grom and I used the rainy weather for fun and more fun.
Here's how we made the valentines we'll be dropping off for Montessori.
Grom will miss the party, but will still get his cards.

I was inspired by a post at Crafty Crow.

I printed heart shapes with a Bible verse inside.
"A friend loves you all the time" Proverbs 17:17
Grom colored the hearts with crayons.
I had fun helping.

Then we watercolored over the crayons.

Let them dry....
really dry.

Cut them out.Grom's going to write his name on the back and we're good to go.
We have enough for friends at school, friends at church and even some for Grandmas.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Online with Grom

Found a fun free online maze website for Grom.

It's really cute.  The player is the ladybug and tries to find its way home.  There is no "out" or time limit, so the game continues until the goal is achieved. 

The ladybug is maneuvered with the arrow keys.  Grom is learning  up / down / right / left and the eye-hand control to stop the ladybug where he wants it to stop.  I love the noise (and am good at mimicking the noise) made when the ladybug reaches her house.  I love to make Grom laugh.  

I think there are about 7 puzzles before it ends.  Refresh the page and the game will start over again at the beginning.  Very fun.

Organized School Supplies

These are MY boxes of crayons, colored pencils, markers, scissors and glues. Grom and I use these supplies during our Before Five in a Row adventures.

Grom has his own crayons and markers. I can't count on them for our activities, so these are set aside for school.

I bought the boxes at Staples during their Back to School sale - quite a deal. I labeled them with lower case letters (better for learning letters and reading - I'm told) using my handy dandy labeling machine.

GeMoOrgNo was started by Lara the Lazy Organizer. I'm joining her every day this month with photos of organized things.

More Participants
Multi-Tasking Mommy
With an Angel on my Shoulder
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

Ask Mr. Bear

I remember this book from when I was a kid. One of the fun things about doing BFIAR with Grom has been all the memories it stirs in me.

We did some of the activities from the curriculum and I found these things on the internet.

Printout for lapbook - I couldn't get Grom interested in coloring these cutouts until this week. If something comes of them, I'll post a picture later.

Fun lapbook example

Books and Music a Magical Mix - active activities (didn't get to these)

Bear Hug Puppet

Animal Scoop - Bears
Bear Den Next time, I'll do more with studying bears.

Here's a couple of pictures from our row.






Grom loved counting and sorting gummy bears. I had my first experience with Grom "stealing" food. I had our school stuff out on the table and was doing something quick in the kitchen. I glanced over and he was sneaking some bears.

We made cards that had the elements of the story. The games were to sequence the cards and also to match the animals with the gifts they offered. Grom has a sense of humor and lately he's been saying wrong things just to be funny. Stuff like... "We get milk from chickens, right Mommy?" Hard to judge what he learned with the cards, but I got a good laugh out of them.

Corduroy

It's time to regroup and recommit to BFIAR. Our book this week is Corduroy. In addition to the ideas in the curriculum, I found these ideas.

Corduroy Craft

Teddy Bear Coloring Page

Counting with Gummy Bears - who doesn't like gummy bears?

Color Bear Concentration Game

Of course we also read A Pocket for Corduroy and Dandelion both also by Don Freeman. All three of the books had readalongs available at the library. Grom loves listening to his books in the car (uh, I mean airplane - but that's another post).

Another nice book from the library was The Button Box by Margarette S. Reid.

Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here and our Before Five In A Row adventure was one of the things that was put on the back burner. We continued reading our stories and have been talking about some of the points of the curriculum. The more hands on projects will be finished up this week.

In addition to the curriculum this is what we did...

Weather Bear Paper Doll - I printed additional "warm weather" outfits and we colored them for additional outfits for Jesse Bear.

I found Jamberry by Bruce Degen and used it as a go-along for Blueberries for Sal. Grom loves that book (I'm on the lookout for our own copy) and we've worn out the story tape listening to it in the car. Grom realized that Jesse Bear and Jamberry are drawn by the same illustrator. He loves the name Bruce Degen and giggles everytime we bring up his name. Very fun and a great memory.



We have a couple of more "bear" books coming in the next couple of weeks, so I'm sure we'll be pulling in more bear activities then.

Yellow Ball / My Blue Boat

I combined these books because I was under the mistaken idea that I had fallen behind. I've come to realize that I can't be behind...

1. I set the schedule
2. Grom is just 3 years old
3. This is supposed to be fun and if fun takes longer than a week - so be it

From the outset I need to confess that these books didn't do a whole lot for me. Maybe I've been spoiled with Goodnight Moon and Blueberries for Sal.

We followed some of the curriculum ideas for both of the books.

Here is some extra stuff I added...
The Yellow Ball - About the Story (mollybang.com) - more interesting for me than Grom
Sailboat Coloring Page
Another Sail Boat Coloring Page

Books we enjoyed that tied to these books...

• Scuffy the Tugboat - video (there are multiple stories on this tape - one of the stories has Scuffy dreaming about going to the sea and then going)
• Tub toys by Terry Miller Shannon & Timothy Warner ; illustrations by Lee Calderon
• Goose by Molly Bang
• Captain Bob sets sail by Roni Schotter ; illustrated by Joe Cepeda.
• The red ball by Joanna Yardley - Grom immediately started finding the red ball on each page
  
• Jesse Bear's tra-la tub by Nancy White Carlstrom ; illustrated by Bruce Degen
• Bathtime piggywiggy by Christyan and Diane Fox - this is a cute book with fold out pages - including a page about SURFING!

We had a great time making boats out of aluminum foil with paper sails. We sailed them in our jacuzzi. I was surprised at how I could blow the boats around the pool.

Blueberries for Sal

Blueberries for Sal at Wikipedia

We did many of the activities from the Before Five In A Row Curriculum. We ate A LOT of blueberries.

From the library...
Blueberries for Sal - read-a-long book
Baby Bears (video)
A day in the life of a baby bear by Peter and Susan Barrett.
Jamberry by Bruce Degen.
Jamberry - read-a-long book
Scolastic's Make way for ducklings--and more Robert McCloskey stories (video) - includes Blueberries for Sal
One Day in Maine by Robert McCloskey - Grom realized it was the same Sal quickly but this longer book lost his attention.

We did this project. I drew a simple bush. It wasn't a blueberry bush until Grom added the blueberries. We colored his fingertip and he stamped the blueberries on the bushes.
Grom made a similar picture using blue dots for the blueberries. He loves sticking stickers.

Goodnight Moon

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Pictures by Clement Hurd


Goodnight Moon - about Goodnight Moon from Wikipedia

Here are some things that I found in addition to the activities listed in the curriculum.

Goodnight Moon Counting page, Goodnight Moon online coloring activity, Goodnight Moon coloring page - Printable and online activities from the Harper Collins website.

Moon rising. - points out how the moon rises through the story and how it corresponds to the time changing on the clocks.

Hey Diddle Diddle Coloring Pages - We've had a lot of fun with this nursery rhyme. Grom colored the pages once and then we made this folder book of the rhyme using the coloring pages.

Here are some books we enjoyed that tied to Goodnight Moon.

• Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle
• The Napping House by Don and Audrey Wood
• Read-a-long version of Goodnight Moon - Grom loves these in the car.
• Goodnight Moon (video) - we only watched the Goodnight Moon segment (it's at the very beginning). The movie came in after we had been rowing the book for a few days. Grom was very excited to see the story come to life.
• Scholastics' Red Riding Hood--and more James Marshall fairy tale favorites (video) - this video includes the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

I stayed away from other Margaret Wise Brown books. I'm saving that for when we row The Runaway Bunny.

Preschool with Grom

Grom and I are starting Before Five in a Row. I'm very excited to see how it goes.

I have the book and have collected most of the stories we will be reading. I've been planning our activities and requesting books from our library like crazy.

We "rowed" (which I have found out means going through a particular book) Goodnight Moon first. It has been fun to see Grom's excitment. Truth be told, I think he's enjoying the focused attention from Mommy.